1 ARTICLE 202. COMMON GAMING HOUSES. 1A common gaming house is any house, room, or place kept or used for the purpose of unlawful gaming therein by any considerable number of persons. Gaming means playing at games either of chance, or of mixed chance and skill. Unlawful gaming means gaming carried on in such a manner, or for such a length of time or for such stakes (regard being had to the circumstances of the players) that it is likely to be injurious to the morals of those who game. All gaming is unlawful in which (i.) a bank is kept by one or more of the players, exclusively of the others; or (ii.) in which any game is played the chances of which are not alike favourable to all the players, including among the players the banker or other person by whom the game is managed, or against whom the other players stake, play or bet. ARTICLE 203. 2 COMMON BETTING HOUSES. A common betting house is a house, office, room, or other place (i.) Kept or used for the purpose of betting between persons resorting thereto and the owner, occupier, or keeper thereof; or any person using the same; or any person procured or employed by, or acting for or on behalf of, any such person; 3 or 1 This definition appears to me to be established by the interpretation put by Jenks v. Turpin, 1884, 13 Q. B. D. 505 on, inter alia, 17 & 18 Vict. c. 38, s. 4. The law is discussed at length in the judgments of Sir H. Hawkins and Smith, J. 216 & 17 Vict. c. 119, s. 1, preamble. Draft Code, s. 157. 3 Any such person same." owner, occupier, or keeper, or person using the any person having the care or management, or in any manner conducting the business thereof; or (ii.) Kept or used for the purpose of any money or valuable thing being received by or on behalf of any such person as aforesaid, as or for the consideration for any assurance, undertaking, promise, or agreement, express or implied, to pay or give thereafter any money or valuable thing on any event or contingency of or relating to any horse race, or other race, fight, game, sport or exercise; or as or for the consideration for securing the paying or giving by some other person of any money or valuable thing on any such event or contingency. 1 Every common betting house is deemed to be a common gaming house. ARTICLE 204. EVIDENCE THAT A HOUSE IS A COMMON GAMING HOUSE. The following circumstances are evidence (until the contrary is proved) that a house, room, or place is a common gaming house, and that the persons found therein were unlawfully playing therein; that is to say, (i.) where any cards, dice, balls, counters, tables, or other instruments of gaming used in playing any unlawful game are found in any house, room, or place suspected to be used as a common gaming house, and entered under a warrant or order issued under 8 & 9 Vict. c. 109, or about the person of any of those found therein; 3 (ii) where any constable or officer authorised as aforesaid, to enter any house, room, or place, is wilfully prevented from, or obstructed, or delayed in entering the same or any part thereof, or where any external or internal door or means of access to any such house, room, or place so authorized to be entered is found to be fitted or provided with any bolt, bar, chain, or any means or contrivance for the purpose of 1 16 & 17 Vict. c. 119, s. 2. preventing, delaying, or obstructing the entry into the house, or any part thereof, of any constable or officer authorized as aforesaid, or for giving alarm in case of such entry; or if any such house, room, or place is found fitted or provided with any means or contrivance for unlawful gaming, or for concealing, removing, or destroying any instruments of gaming. ARTICLE 205. DISORDERLY PLACES OF ENTERTAINMENT. The following places are disorderly places of entertainment, that is to say (a.) 1 Every house, room, garden, or other place kept for public dancing, music, or other public entertainment of the like kind in the cities of London and Westminster, or within twenty miles thereof, without a licence granted in compliance with the provisions of 25 Geo. 2, c. 36. 2 This definition does not include the Theatres Royal in Drury Lane and Covent Garden, or the King's Theatre in the Haymarket, or any performance or public entertainment carried on under letters patent, or licence from the Crown or the Lord Chamberlain. (b.) 3 Every house, room, or other place opened or used for public entertainment or amusement, or for public debating on any subject whatsoever upon any part of the Lord's Day called Sunday, and to which persons are admitted by the payment of money, or by tickets sold for money. The following places are deemed to be places to which persons are admitted by the payment of money, although money is not taken in the name of or for admittance, that is. to say, any house, room, or place— (i.) at which persons are supplied with tea, coffee, or other refreshments of eating or drinking on the Lord's Day at any greater price than the common and usual prices 1 25 Geo. 2, c. 36, s. 2. 2 Ibid. s. 4. 3 21 Geo. 3, c. 49, s. 1. 4 Ibid. s. 2. L at which the like refreshments are commonly sold upon other days thereat, or at places where the same usually are sold; or (ii.) opened or used for any of the purposes aforesaid at the expense of any number of subscribers or contributors to the carrying on any such entertainment, or amusement, or debate, on the Lord's Day, to which persons are admitted by tickets to which the subscribers or contributors are entitled. ARTICLE 206. DISORDERLY INNS. 1 A disorderly inn is an inn kept in a disorderly manner and suffered to be resorted to by persons of bad character for any improper purpose. Every person who keeps a disorderly inn, or who, being an innkeeper, refuses, without reasonable grounds, to entertain any person ready and willing to pay for entertainment therein, commits a misdemeanor. ARTICLE 207. LOTTERIES. 3 2 Every person commits a common nuisance who 3 keeps a lottery of any kind whatever without the authority of Parlia ment. As to refusing 1 Precedent of indictment, 3 Chit. Crim. Law, 672-3. entertainment, see R. v. Rymer, 1877, 2 Q. B. D. 136. 210 Will. 3, c. 17, s. 1; 42 Geo. 3, c. 119, s. 2; and see R. v. Crawshaw, 1860, Bell, C. C. 303. = 3 "Keeps" "publicly or privately keep any office or place to exercise, keep open, show, or expose, to be played, drawn, or thrown at or in, either by dice, lots, cards, balls, or by numbers or figures, or by any other way, contrivance, or device whatsoever, any game or lottery called a little go, or any other lottery whatsoever not authorized by Parliament," 42 Geo. 3, c. 119, s. 2. 1 ARTICLE 208. NUISANCES TO HEALTH, LIFE, AND PROPERTY. Every person commits a common nuisance who does anything which endangers the health, life, or property of the public or any part of it. 2 Publicly and wilfully exposing or causing to be exposed for sale articles of food unfit for consumption, and knowingly permitting servants to mix unwholesome ingredients in articles of food, are acts endangering the health or life of the public within the meaning of this article. 3 Everything is deemed to endanger health, life, or property which either causes actual danger thereto, or which must do so in the absence of a degree of prudence and care the continual exercise of which cannot be reasonably expected. 4 Illustrations. (1.) A carries a child infected with the small-pox along a public highway in which persons are passing, and near to inhabited houses. A commits a common nuisance. (2.) 5 A permits his house standing by the highway to become so ruinous as to be likely to fall down, and to injure passengers. A commits a common nuisance. (3.) A burns down his own house, it being in a situation 1 See cases in Illustrations. The offences of being a common scold and of eavesdropping would fall under this head, but they may be regarded as practically obsolete. 2 Draft Code, s. 153. Selling unwholesome food is now punishable summarily under the Public Health Acts 38 & 39 Vict. c. 98, s. 117, 53 & 54 Vict. c. 59, s. 28, see Oke's Synopsis, p. 556. Adulterating food or drugs for sale, or selling them when adulterated, after a previous conviction are misdemeanors punishable with imprisonment with hard labour for six months, 38 & 39 Vict. c. 63, ss. 3, 4, see Oke's Synopsis, pp. 152, 154. 3 Illustration (5). 4 R. v. Vantandillo, 1815, 4 M. & S. 73. So of bringing a glandered horse to a fair, R. v. Hanson, 1852, Dear. 24. An infected person exposing himself would commit the same offence. 5 R. v. Watson, 1705; 2 Lord Raym. 856. 6 R. v. Probert, 1799, 2 Ea. P. Č. 1030. injure or defraud, this would be felony. See Article 419 (a). If there were an intent to |